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The Country House Inn is on the O.S Map and listed in
Pigot's Directory (1823). Resident is J. Davis. White (1850) gives an address, 14 Catherine Street,
and was built on the site of the former annuelers college.
The inn is however much older than these dates and was in fact the subject of a "for sale" notice on 6th September 1771 in the Exeter flying Post. Before the square in present day Catherine Street was re-dsesigned by Land Securities (2005) there used to be a red breccia flower-bed opposite the ruins of St Catherines Almshouses. Here in the was an iron ring, marking the site of the Cathedral's old St Catherine's Gate. The ring was once in the wall of the Country House Inn which used to stand to the right of the ruins before 1942 when it was fire-bombed. The inn was reputed to be 500 years old! Between 1878 and 1879 the inn issued checks. HG Beal was resident. In 1879, the Norman and Pring Brewery purchased the lease from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for £225.00, with the freehold purchased in 1887. Stuart Callon Copyright ©2002-2004 |